Can I use a wood burner as backup to natural gas furnance?
macrocheese
| Posted in Expert Exchange Q&A on
We have a great natural gas forced air heating system. The house is 1950’s frame construction, two stories with the furnace on the lower floor at one end. In the future event of natural gas loss (earthquake or man-made disasters), can we proactively install a wood burning stove in the furnace room (using the existing flue) or perhaps just on the outside of the furnance room wall in order to marry with the forced air system until normal natural gas is available again? Thanks
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Replies
Interesting thought!
I think the question to answer would be: what’s the availability of electricity in this scenario? Could you power an air handler?
I think a stand-alone wood stove might be easier, even if distribution would be worse.
There’s also the option of using a propane backup.
Seems unlikely your furnace room would be large enough to maintain the 3 feet or so of clearance required for most wood burning units.
Note many insurance companies will not insure building heated with solid fuels (coal, wood, wood pellets)
Walta
Gas and wood cannot share a flue if that is what you are thinking.
If you had an existing fireplace you were not using, I would consider that, as I did since we never use the downstairs fireplace. In the event of the zombie apocalypse I can heat reasonable well that way. I think you are better off with a generator. Gas outages happen, but not as often as power